To the Rural Poor

An Explanation for the Peasants of What the Social-Democrats Want

1. The Struggle of the Urban Workers

Manypeasants have probably already heard about the labour unrest in the
      towns. Some of them have themselves been in the capitals and in the
      factories, and have seen the riots, as the police call them. Others know
      workers who were involved in the unrest and were deported to their
      villages by the authorities. Others again must have seen the leaflets
      issued by the workers, or pamphlets about the workers’ struggle. Still
      others have only heard stories about what is going on in the towns from
      people with first-hand experience.

Formerly,only students rebelled, but now thousands and tens of thousands
      of workers have risen in all the big towns. In most cases they fight
      against their employers, against the factory owners, against the
      capitalists. The workers declare strikes, all of them stop work at a
      factory at the same time and demand higher wages, demand that they should
      be made to work not eleven or ten hours a day, but only eight hours. The
      workers also demand other things that would make the working man’s life
      easier. They want the workshops to be in better condition and the machines
      to be protected by special devices so as to prevent them from maiming the
      workers; they want their children to be able to go to school and the sick
      to be given proper aid in the hospitals; they want the workers’ homes to
      be like human dwellings instead of being like pigsties.

Thepolice intervene in the workers’ struggle. The police seize workers,
      throw them into prison, deport them without trial to their villages, or
      even to Siberia. The government has passed laws banning strikes and
      workers’ meetings. But the workers wage their fight against the police and
      against the government. The workers say: We,millions of working people, have bent our backs long enough! We have
      worked for the rich and remained paupers long enough! We have allowed them
      to rob us long enough! We want to unite in unions, to unite all the
      workers in one big workers’ union (a workers’party) and to
      strive jointly for a better life. We want to achieve a new and better
      order of society: in this new and better society there must be neither
      rich nor poor; all will have to work. Not a handful of rich people, but
      all the working people must enjoy the fruits of their common
      labour. Machines and other improvements must serve to ease the work of all
      and not to enable a few to grow rich at the expense of millions and tens
      of millions of people. This new and better society is calledsocialist
      society. The teachings about this society are calledsocialism. The workers’ unions which fight for this better order
      of society are calledSocial-Democraticparties. Such parties
      exist openly in nearly all countries (except Russia and Turkey), and our
      workers, together with socialists from among the educated people, have
      also formed such a party: theRussian Social-Democratic Labour
      Party.

Thegovernment persecutes that Party, but it exists in secret, despite all
      prohibitions; it publishes its news papers and pamphlets and organises
      secret unions. The workers not only meet in secret but come out into the
      streets in crowds and unfurl their banners bearing the inscriptions:
      “Long live the eight-hour day! Long live freedom! Long live
      socialism!” The government savagely persecutes the workers for this. It
      even sends troops to shoot down the workers. Russian soldiers have killed
      Russian workers in Yaroslavl, St. Petersburg, Riga, Rostov-on-Don, and
      Zlatoust.

Butthe workers do not yield. They continue the fight. They say: neither
      persecution, prison, deportation, penal servitude, nor death can frighten
      us. Our cause is a just one. We are fighting for the freedom and the
      happiness of all who work. We are fighting to free tens and hundreds of
      millions of people from abuse of power, oppression and poverty. The
      workers are becoming more and more class- conscious. The number of
      Social-Democrats is growing fast in all countries. We shall win despite
      all persecution.

Therural poor must clearly understand who these Social-Democrats are,
      what they want, and what must be done in the countryside to help the
      Social-Democrats to win happiness for the people.